By Peter H. Stone | The Huffington Post
In 2009, as conservative consultant Sean Noble was poised to launch the Center to Protect Patient Rights, an Arizona-based advocacy group, he was invited to one of the secretive conferences for wealthy donors and prominent politicos hosted by multibillionaires Charles and David Koch.
Noble’s entree to the Kochs’ fundraising kingdom came via Randy Kendrick, a conservative philanthropist and a regular attendee at the Kochs’ confabs. Kendrick, a fellow Arizonan, proved to be instrumental in building and financing Noble’s outfit. She helped introduce Noble to the Koch donor world and has kicked in previously unreported seven-figure checks to the center, multiple GOP consultants familiar with the group told The Huffington Post.
The center’s growth has been staggering. Kendrick’s largess is part of an estimated $200 million that’s flowed to Noble’s group since 2009. By 2010, ahead of that year’s midterm congressional elections, Noble’s center had evolved into a giant conduit through which donors secretly funneled over $55 million to some 20 other conservative groups, which, in turn, ran ads to help Republicans and attack Obamacare.
